Best Buy is surely aware of their crappy reputation for crappy customer service, it seems they just don't care. Perhaps they still manage to do enough business that losing a few pissed off customers doesn't have enough of an affect on their bottom line to matter. But then, I do know that they were using a secret shopper company to find out how their employees were doing ... I know because I did a few secret shopper assignments there, and they earned horrible ratings from me then. Just as they do for today.

Of course, I have fired off a letter to their corporate customer relations people. The text of which is below the fold. I don't think much will come of it. One other time (out of many) I had a problem that I tried to address through them, I had to bring the BBB into the picture to get things straightened out. At best, the shitty employees may have to find another line of work. I recommend landscaping.

Today, I entered the Best Buy store in Knoxville, TN for the purpose of purchasing a Kenwood car CD player/stereo for my daughter for her birthday present. I had already done as much research as I could online at BestBuy.com but I still had a couple of questions. After waiting several minutes in that area, I was finally approached by an employee who asked if I was finding what I needed. NOT if I had questions or needed any help.

I said that I was looking for the Kenwood player/stereo that is on sale and also had a $40 gift card offer. Before I could even ask my question, the employee interrupted me and said that was an online only offer. I said that I would then order online and pick up in store. He said that they were rarely available in-store and the site will always say they are, they really aren't. I said that was not my experience and tried to state that I had checked several models before decided on the Kenwood and some showed available and some didn't. But he interrupted me again to further discourage me from trying to take advantage of the gift card deal, I suppose.

I was getting irate and decided to clarify with a manager, and possibly also get my still unanswered questions addressed. So I went up front, asked for a manager and proceeded to wait for 20 minutes. I finally gave up, went to your competition's store and ordered the item from one of the wifi connected computers they have available for customers to use. I returned to the store and picked up the item.
Now, I still had questions - namely when I could arrange for installation and did buying online still qualify for the free install. I also needed to purchase a cable to connect an iPod to the CD player/stereo. I returned to the car audio area where I stood around for nearly 30 minutes where I was totally ignored by the boy working there, the same one that was rude and short with me earlier.

While waiting, I just happened to see a sign that said that HD enabled CD players/stereos came with a free $40 gift card! I have no idea and can't even begin to guess why that employee lied to me about the sale offer. Surely he could have not known! That sign was right there in his department!

So now for the finale ... I took the Kenwood player I had bought over to the returns area, set it on the counter and told the girl that I wanted a refund. I was obviously hacked off, but instead of just doing what I asked, the girl gave me attitude and said she needed to call a manager. Another woman came over and got in on the attitude game, which only served to further enrage me. A manager finally arrived, asked what I needed and I told him a refund. I tried to address my grievance with him, but he just blew me off. The woman rang up the refund, but while doing so, made a big show of slowly taking everything out of the box to check for missing parts, presumably, even though I told her that I had not even had it outside of the store.

Your customer service standards must be horribly low to allow this kind of employee behavior to go on. I had hoped there was some kind of improvement, as I actually had a rather pleasant experience in that same store about a year ago when they worked with my insurance company to replace some items that were stolen from my home. It was a long drawn out, confusing and often frustrating affair, but it was made OK by the kind attention and empathy from the staff that was there that day. That is the one, ONE, time that I left with a positive experience from that store. Over the years, I have made many, many purchases amounting to thousands of dollars. But never again.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Cough Cough Gasp!

There oughta be a law, or at least it should be a justifiable reason for tossing someone out the fourth floor window ...

We have a new employee being trained. She must literally bathe in her cologne. To make it even worse, it is the kind I detest, even at normal levels - sickly, sweet, flowery granny perfume. Gag! I seriously have a headache and my eyes are watering. There is almost a visible cloud around her. What's weird is she is young, attractive and very much not the type one would think would wear inappropriate amounts of cologne to work.

I may leave for the rest of the day. This is unbearable. What I really need is a good excuse to take several days off ... *sigh*

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Thankful for ... what exactly?

Of course, the "in thing" to do this week is to recount all the things one is thankful for. I seem to be having a bit of a problem with that ...

It's like this ... I could name things that I am thankful for, but each one is followed by a "BUT" which contradicts the good. Like, I am thankful for the nice house I live in, BUT I have no idea how I am going to pay the rent this month. Or, I am thankful for my kids, BUT their issues and difficulties are tearing me completely apart. See what I mean?

For months, I have been wallowing in a depression that is deeper and darker than any I have ever been in before. Along with that, I have anxiety issues bordering on full-blown panic attacks. I thought I also had a good measure of paranoia going on, but I have since discovered that I don't. People really don't like me or want me around ... it wasn't just my imagination! That's such a relief! So, in my never-ending quest to make everyone happy, I will be retiring back into my little hermit world where I won't piss off or offend people just with the mere fact that I exist anymore.

Have a good holiday, folks. Be thankful you aren't as screwed up as I am.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Fascism at Freecycle

Freecycle.org is a community based group devoted to minimizing the volume of trash that goes to landfills. This is accomplished through the use of Yahoo Groups, one for each city or region. People post the stuff they have to give away, others reply saying they want it. The giver decides who gets it and the two parties make arrangement to transfer the goods. People also post things they are looking for, and this can get out of hand ... I've seen people asking for tanning beds, sea-doos, laptops, video cameras ... not exactly household cast-offs. But each group has one or two, or more, moderators. These are the people that keep the groups running smoothly, which is usually the case, but it all goes to hell when one of the moderators gets too big for their britches.

Being in between jobs this past week, I decided to clean some of the junk out of here. On Monday, I posted a list of items to the Knoxville Freecycle group for giveaway. I waited and waited for it to post. I believe that all messages to the group have to be approved by one of the moderators first. After 8 hours and no post, I wrote to the moderators to find out how much longer it would be, as I had some other things planned and would run into a scheduling problem if my list didn't post soon.

A bit later, still no post, and I found out that Yahoo Mail was having an issue with a worm running rampant, and I figured that was causing the delays. So, I wrote again, asking the moderators to NOT post my message, because I was out of time and couldn't wait any longer. I planned to try it again later in the week. Again, I got no response. I posted to the Chit-Chat list for the group, asking if anyone had a direct email address for either of the moderators, and I included a tiny rant over how crappy they were being about this.

Then, my message posted. Fortunately, one of the first respondents was a gentleman that was able to meet me on my schedule, so I gave the items to him. Later that night, I got an email from one of the moderators, Dyanna Abbot, saying that I was banned from the group.

I wrote back that I would appreciate a reason. This went directly to Dyanna's email address. No reply. I wrote and asked again. No reply. I wrote to the .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) ... finally! A reply from the other moderator, Kim. She said she had been offline for a few days, but would look into it. That was four days ago. In the meantime, I wrote to Dyanna again, and again. I have yet to receive the courtesy of a reply.

A quick search turns up another Yahoo Group made up of people who were kicked off of the Freecycle Knoxville group for no reason. There are 20 members. Taking into consideration the number of people that wouldn't bother joining, one can only imagine how many more people Dyanna has dumped off the group like this. And why ... if there is any reason at all. I get the feeling that Dyanna just likes to throw her weight around and kick people off whenever they annoy her. Isn't that mature? I think that if she can't handle being a moderator of a group that size, then she needs to step down. What's really scary is that this lady, having issues with handling adversity, breeds and raises pit bulls as a business. Isn't that lovely?

At this point, I don't give a shit about being in the Freecycle group anymore ... I just want an answer. Maybe someone else can get one from this childish woman ...

Saturday, May 13, 2006

What a crappy week

Just how is it that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong? I think the fuck-up fairy beat the crap out of me with her damn wand or something. Gah!

The job. Ohmahgawd the job. I want to weep just thinking about the job. I had a really good interview for a really good job a couple weeks ago. They said I would hear something by this past Monday, and to call if I didn't hear from them. I didn't hear from them, so I called. Their HR had no record of me whatsoever. None. Not my resume, not a notation on the calendar for my interview appointment. Nothing. Nada. They said they would call the manager I interviewed with. That was Monday.

Wednesday, I find that my cell phone battery is not holding a charge like it should. Which is not a good thing while I am hoping to hear back from other job possibilities. But I still have some time on the Service Plan. I was at Best Buy anyway, so I asked about it. Dude in the cell phone area was clueless, so he sent me to customer service. She tried to help, but could only tell me to call the 888-BESTBUY number. I tried to do so on the way from there to the grocery store. They have some really crappy hold music. I tried again at home, same thing ... on-hold hell puncuated by the nasally robotic voice telling me that my call IS important.

Next morning, I get a rep on the phone. She said I needed to get a service order from the Best Buy store. I told her the store told me to call. So she transferred me. The next person had no idea ... she was an order taker. She tried to transfer me, and the line disconnected. I called back, explained again. Was transferred again. This time I got someone in wireless. They said that they could repair my phone, I would have to send it in. I told him all I need is a battery. He said they had to test it, and it would be $36.95 plus shipping each way, what is my Visa number please. Uhh no. I have a Service Plan. No charge for batteries that don't charge. He said my warranty is expired, the phone is almost two years old. Duh! I have a Service Plan! TWO years! He transferred me, I was on hold for 15 minutes and gave up. I was supposed to be, ya know, like doing my job. Such as it is. But I did take another moment to fire off a nasty gram to their customer service department.

That night I called from home. This time I only had to talk to three people, only one of whom is likely a US citizen or even located on this continent. "Ello, this is Bob. I am sorry to hear of the problem you have, but we will correct problem as soon as it is possible." But, I have a new battery on the way, one that should hold a charge, at no charge. I WILL get my money's worth from that stupid Service Plan! And yes, Bob, you are most certainly, without a doubt ... the man.

I want that two hours of my life back though.

Next we have this lovely web host. This web host used to be the most excellent web host ever. Customer service was better termed TLC. Their clients raved endlessly about them. Him. It's a small company, one man op. He says that his work and personal life has become extremely chaotic and he doesn't have the time to devote the the hosting service. A week of this would be understandable, given the circumstances. Even a month ... ups and downs, slowness, database errors, DNS problems. But it has been 6 months of this. I was one of the most loyal, defending the service when others were complaining. But it finally got to me. Maybe it was the emails that got dumped, one of them maybe a job response or something important. Or maybe it was the 404s when trying to access any part of my site. So I posted on DSLReports that I was done, over it, and was getting hosting service elsewhere.

Not long after that, I get an email from the owner. Asking me not to leave. That he was putting the final tweaks on the server to make it more stable and the outage I experienced was the final reboot of the server. I don't know whether to laugh, cry, get mad or what. I certainly have no clue how to answer. But I have signed up with another host. I may keep this one going ... photo storage, let my daughter use it for her sites, as a test bed. I can't completely walk away. Not yet.

And the new host. I placed my order just after noon. They say it can take up to 24 hours to complete order, but 2-4 is more usual. My order still is not complete. Everyone else is saying it only took a very short time and they were up and running. But oh no! Not me!

Finally, we have Netflix. The service we love to hate, and hate to love. I just joined back up recently. A co-worker got me interested in "24" (I'm always running a day behind the rest of the world, maybe one day I will actually watch an episode of "Lost"!) Co-worker insisted that I get the previous seasons on DVD and watch those too, to catch up. With each season running $35-40 a set, and there being 4 seasons out, I figured Netflix to be the more economical way to go. So I queue up the "24" seasons, one after the other, and get ready for some hard-hitting, slam-bam, gut punch, blow your face off rockin' Jack Bauer action. Yeah! I have now watched the 5 disks of the 6-disk 1st season set. The 6th was in the mail today. I had two eps left on disk 5 to watch. When those were done, I put #6 in. And nothing happened. No disk in the drive. I took it out and looked closely ... geez o pete! It's cracked! Not just cracked, but one side is completely broken! AND it isn't even disk #6! It's another disk 5! (Oh and look! My free two weeks is up! Instead of a two day turn-around, it's now four or five. Idiots.)

Folks, it's the ending of the season! This is toe-curling, chair arm gripping, holding breath, wide-eyed action here! Who else is gonna get killed? Will the bad guys get caught? Is Kimberly gonna do hard time? Will Tony and Terri make it back to CTU? Will Jack make it out of the prison-that-doesn't-exist with daddy terrorist? Will the Senator put the smack-down on that evil bitch wife of his? I have to wait until at least NEXT WEDNESDAY to find out! Aaauuuuggghhh!

It's time to get into my jammies, snuggle under the covers with my kitties, and The Chronicles of Narnia: A Horse and His Boy ... this week needs to be OVER!

Friday, September 30, 2005

To Sleep ... Perchance to Dream

I have quit smoking three other times in my life. Each time I was pregnant. None of those times was anywhere near as torturous as this is now. Sure, the withdrawals could have been overshadowed by pregnancy symptoms, but I had super easy pregnancies. Really. Go ahead and hate me now, ladies ... I had not one moment of morning sickness, none of the many usual complaints ... a bit of ankle swelling in the ninth month with my first, and some back aches with the third. I could probably start a riot by telling how easy my second and third births were, from my 5'1" small boned frame ... but I digress.

That said, I would rather be pregnant right now, than going through nicotine withdrawals. Read on for the gruesome details ....

Insomnia ... no one told me about this shit! Holy crap! I am usually a champion sleeper. It's bed time, lights out, I'm gone. ZZZzzzZZZzzz. My problem has always been a lack of will and desire to wake up in the morning ... not getting to and staying asleep! Sweet Jesus on a pogo stick! This is surely the root of madness, this sleep deprivation. I cannot keep my thoughts together or even carry on a cogent conversation. And I can barely stay awake during the day. My boss really loves that. But he is sympathetic ... and supportive. However, putting my head down on my desk and napping would be pushing the limits.

Brain gooze ... probably a corollary to the insomnia: I am stupid as a box of rocks these days. Speak to me and it will take a full 30 seconds for me to comprehend what you just said. I went to get my nails done this evening. The girl asks if I also want a pedicure. Pedicure? Yes ... you get toes done too? My toes. *blank stare* Yes, you want pedicure on you toes? ... Now granted, she is Vietnamese and is working hard on her English skills, but I can usually understand her just fine. It isn't the accent or language ... I just could not comprehend the word "pedicure" ... I am sure she thinks I lost my mind.

Nerves on fire ... oh yes, this is fun. It is not so bad today, but the last two days, I felt like every nerve ending in my whole body was a live wire ... sizzling, snapping, sparking. Little tonic jerks in my legs kept me bouncing my leg lest I look like I have cerebral palsy or epilepsy. Stand up, sit down, pace, pace, pace. And I itch ... dear sweet God in heaven, my arms, back and tummy itch all to hell and back! Dig, dig, dig. Pace, pace, pace.

Fooooood! I am eating compulsively. I am trying to stick to relatively healthy stuff ... nuts, trail mix, pretzels. But I have already gained two pounds. I think that is from the two Sonic burgers, onion rings and Ched'R Peppers I ate Sunday. With a side of scrambled eggs and toast (I couldn't decide if I wanted breakfast or lunch). The lasagna and cheese Texas toast for dinner probably didn't help much either.

I will refrain from describing what happens to the food I eat later on ... that would probably qualify as an over-share. TMI and all. I'll just say that it is just adding to my misery ... several times a day ... and leave it at that.

I am taking Wellbutrin to help with this. That may be what is keeping me from ripping anyone's head off. But I should still avoid crowded places that annoy me anyway, like Walmart or Kroger. I have such a lovely redheaded temper to start with. I do hope this does not get ugly.

One very hopeful note, I do not have any compulsive desire to smoke a cigarette though. None. Perhaps because I know what it feels like to smoke again after a long period of not smoking ... now that, my friends, is miserable, and is something I do not need. I do miss it as part of my routine ... while driving, on work breaks, after meals, with my morning coffee ... but I have not had the thought, "I need a smoke!" It just ain't happening. I guess this truly is my time to quit.

Keep me in prayers and thoughts though ... this ain't over by a long shot.

Friday, July 09, 2004

Another Yahoo Loser

Introducing .... the mindpuke of Brian_TN_2003. Yet another Yahoo IM loser who spends his day trolling through Yahoo profiles, looking for women to harrass. Interesting ... this is a young one. One would think he would have better luck in real life. No wait ... looking at that pic, he is better off on the 'Net. Then again, the rest of us would be better off with him in a cave somewhere.

From: brian_tn_2003 08 Jul 2004 14:14 PDT - wow ur son is a loser and I don't know why so many guys are coing after you ... you look ugly as hell to me

Gee Brian ... so very mature and classy coming from a "thug" like you (you look more like a wannabe). Perhaps I should be a little more forgiving, seeing as how you are just a child, and totally without a clue. Scary to think that you might reproduce one day ... but that would require a female willing to put up with your shit. Better get really rich ... that would be the only thing you would have to offer anyone.

Everyone ... let's let Brian know what a total slimeball loser he is ... brian_tn_2003@yahoo.com. Or just fire up your Yahoo IM and let him know that way.

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Loser alert!

Wow ... there are really some whacked out people out there. Take, for instance, ssmith1627 ... that's his Yahoo IM handle. Mr Smith was the first fucktard to have his Yahoo IM mindpuke published here ... wayyyy back in July 2003. I got a lot of mileage out of that post ... but I digress.

Since then, I have had several more fucktards send me random IMs on Yahoo. What a bunch of losers! It appears that these guys troll through Yahoo profiles looking for women to send messages to. The digital version of "Hey baby ... you come here often?" Except that when they aren't actually face to face with a lady, they tend to get really vulgar and disgusting. What is really retarded is my Yahoo profile clearly states that I am "Single, Not Looking" with a further diatribe on people with reading comprehension problems, plus a link to the above post.

So here we are ... almost a year after I first encountered ssmith1627's wit and wisdom. Today, he sent me several more messages.

From: ssmith1627 29 Jun 2004 13:34 PDT Why don't you just go kill yourself and save us from having to read your garbage?

Sunday, April 04, 2004

On the other side of 40

Yep ... I made it here. I am 40 years old. The big day was actually four days ago ... I tried my best to ignore it. It didn't work. It happened anyway.

In some ways, I still feel like a 20-something. I like pop music, most trendy clothing styles (I do have my limits though) and I "think" young. I seem to remember when I was a teen-ager, my parents seemed like horribly old fashioned fuddy duddies. They liked music that was from way back when, and polyester ruled their closets. Ehh ... my kids probably think the same of me. I do get some strange looks when I sing along with the radio to the latest hit. Who knows?

Sometimes I feel like I am playing house ... when I am doing really "grown up" stuff. Like opening a new bank account, or applying for a loan. That's stuff that grown ups do! What am I doing here?

Older and wiser ... mmmaybe. Maybe not. I've learned some of life's tougher lessons. But there are still a lot of things I haven't figured out yet. I have yet to decide what I want to be when I grow up. The latest "interesting job" I have considered is travel agent. What a kick that would be!

Physically I really feel older. Aches and pains that I never had before are now a constant. I get tired easily, where I used to be able to go and go and go. I used to be able to eat anything I wanted and never gain a pound ... now I have to watch what I eat to keep the scale from creeping up even higher. The lines on my face, the gray in my hair and age spots on my hands are a constant reminder that time marches on.

Life and love ... Huh? Oh yeah, that. I gave up dating for general peace of mind. Too many freaks, assholes, and emotional retards out there ... yes, Jim, I am talking about you. Robert and Kevin too. And both Davids, and also Tony. Six losers in ten years. And people wonder why I am so cynical and jaded. Heh ...

Family ... I worry incessantly about my parents. They, too, are getting older. And their health is a primary concern. Daddy had a heart attack a few months ago ... not a big one, he didn't even know he had it until it was found during a routine check-up. Both of Mom's parents had Alzheimer's. I'm already seeing signs of it in Mom. She's told me the same story three times in the last week. I hope I can get my kids good and grown up before Mom and Daddy need my care full time. Is it selfish to want a few years all on my own with no responsibilities other than to myself?

Three teen-agers ... that's enough to age anyone, especially in my situation. Having a kid with bipolar disorder is the stuff that nightmares are made of. We are through the worst of it, but it isn't over by a long shot. My son will have a constant struggle with this for the rest of his life. My dear darling daughter, my baby girl, has hit the teen-age years big time. She's 14 going on 35, very smart, very sophisticated in many ways ... and of course, knows it all. Heh ... I was that way too at that age. I was so amazed at how much smarter and wiser my parent became from the time I was 16 until I was 21. These are the challenging years.

Everyday life ... as I become more and more knowledgeable about politics and current events, the more I question what I believe in. I am neither a lefty or a righty, Democrat or Republican ... I just have my own ideas about things, my own opinions. Some are way liberal, some swing all the way over to the conservative extreme. Most are in the middle. I read and read and read ... and I remain confused on many things.

Where my life is going .... good question! Heh ... I want to get more involved in mental health advocacy, but that tends to be a mostly volunteer thing and is very time consuming. It's all I can do to put in my time at work, take care of the things at home and not pass out before bedtime. I'd like to do something with computers ... web site design and administration. But most job descriptions require years of experience in applications I don't have access to, and many require a college degree. If they'd just give me a chance!

There are many things in my life thus far that I wish I could go back and do over. Don't we all? But when I reflect on everything that has happened, where I've been and what I have done, I can see how it all strings together, that I had to experience one thing in order to be ready for something else later on, or to be in the right place for some later event. Then that leads to wondering ... where is all of this headed? What's next?

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Bah! Humbug!

It's time for my annual holiday grumble ... bear with me.

I don't like this time of year. At all. And it's not just the holidays and the attendant madness. I may have a touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder ... becoming a little depressed and a lot more irritable as the days grow shorter and the weather colder. It may also have to do with the fact that many of my life's tragedies and crises occurred during the autumn months. September, October and November mark anniversaries of events I would rather not have had to experience. So far so good this year .... but just last week they laid off a bunch of people at work. I was terrified to the point that I could barely function. Despite reassurances from our supervisors that the lay-offs are done, we are fine ... we still can sense the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads. The general attitude sucks these days. Go figure.

And then the holidays ... every year I wonder if I will make it through without seriously going off the deep end.

I hate crowds. And this is a new development in my personality. I used to love being where the action is, part of the crowd. I hate it now ... I hate going to the mall, sitting in traffic, Walmart ... ugh! I just don't like being around a lot of other people.

Holiday crap is already on display in stores. I went to the grocery store last night and they had Christmas carols playing throughout the store. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet! WTF??? It's almost become clich頴o rant about the crass over-commercialization of the holiday that is supposed to be a celebration and remembrance of the birth of Christ ... so I will let other pundits take on that task.

My baby girl will be with me this whole four day weekend though! Four wonderful days with the smartest, sassiest, most beautiful young lady in the world. (I may be just a bit biased here ... get over it!) She continually amazes me with her intelligence, insightfulness, and level of integrity and ethics. She's only 13 but already has a pretty good grip on life. I wish I had been so "with it" when I was her age. But still I worry ... life still has some rough knocks and surprises in store for her. But that's supposed to "build character" right?? She'll be OK ... no, she'll be better than OK. She's gonna have the world by the tail. It is so amazing watching this young woman develop ... like a beautiful butterfly emerging from a cocoon. It's breathtaking.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find [Me], when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity. - Jeremiah 29:11-14 [NKJV]